On September 12, 1999, Senate Bill S1448, introduced by New Jersey Senator Diane Allen and approved by the Legislature, established within the State Employment and Training Commission (SETC) a permanent Council on Gender Parity in Labor and Education (P.L.1999, c.223). The Council oversees the State's efforts to provide gender equity in labor, education and training.

The charge of the Council is to:

1. Assess the effectiveness of State programs designed to provide gender equity in education and training;
2. Make recommendations to the Commissioners of Departments of Community Affairs, Education, Human Services, Labor and Workforce Development, and the Chairperson of the Commission on Higher Education regarding the needs, priorities, programs and policies related to equity for labor, education, and workforce training;
3. Review current and proposed legislation and regulations pertaining to gender equity in labor, education and workforce training and make recommendations regarding possible legislation and regulations to the State Employment and Training Commission and the Division on Women;
4. Develop policies to insure that State agencies set benchmarks and integrate their data collection systems to assess progress toward achieving gender equity and take action to insure that appropriate data collection systems exist where needed;
5. Develop policies to promote linkages among individuals, schools, organizations, and public agencies providing gender equity services and programs;
6. Educate and provide information to the public on the issues and current developments in gender equity by issuing reports and holding events such as conferences and symposia; and,
7. Assess annually the implementation of the recommendations of the SETC’s Gender Equity Task Forces’ published reports - Leveling the Playing Field: Removing Barriers for Women in New Jersey's Employment and Training Programs, and Balancing the Equation a²+b²=c² : A Report on Gender Equity in Education.

In addition, the Council is required to report annually to the Governor, the Legislature, State Employment and Training Commission and the Division on Women of its accomplishments, initiatives, assessments and recommendations during the reporting period.

This Council is believed to be the first policy body of its kind in the nation. The Council consists of eight members, in addition to representatives from State agencies.  Dianne Mills McKay is the Council's Chair.  Council meetings are held four to six times a year and are open to the public.

The Center for Women and Work (CWW), Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is the research and administrative arm of the Council. As the research arm, the Center for Women and Work collects data, conducts research, and produces reports for the Council. The CWW also works closely with the SETC and the Council to follow occupational trends in New Jersey and to identify current or potential gender inequities. At the Council’s direction, the Center for Women and Work engaged in a study to examine five occupations with identified labor shortages (building trades, financial services, healthcare, law, and technology) and conducted research and produced reports on the role of gender and technology in New Jersey, gender issues in the building trades, issues surrounding gender parity in healthcare, and the educational and workplace experiences of female engineers.

(Note: All reports referenced below may be found under "Reports" on the Council on Gender Parity in Labor and Education page.)

·        Conference - October 2000   A mini-conference was held at Douglass College. The purpose of the conference was to set the agenda for the Council and provide information to be used in several reports. The conference was entitled Gender Equity and Technology in the New Jersey Workplace: Setting the Agenda and focused on issues of equity for women in education, technology and the workplace. More than 90 experts in education and business attended the invitational mini-conference. New Jersey Senator Diane Allen, who introduced the Bill establishing the Council, provided opening remarks. Kathy Johnson, Vice-Chair on the National Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering and Technology Development (CAWMSET) was the keynote speaker at the conference. Roundtable discussions included: strategies to motivate girls to take math, science and technology courses on K-12 level; educational policy to ensure gender equity in science and technology programs; college programs to attract and retain female science and technology majors, school/business partnerships; recruitment and retention of women in technology positions; corporate programs to develop technological training of certified and non-college educated workers; and, women entrepreneurs.  These roundtable discussions provided information for two reports that followed:  Bridging the Gap: Gender Equity in Science, Engineering and Technology (prepared for the Council by Dr. Mary Gatta, Center for Women and Work) and Prospects for Parity in the New Economy (written by Dr. Mary Gatta and Dr. Mary Trigg, Center for Women and Work).

·        Conference - May 2001   As part of the Governor's Conference Series on Women's Issues, the New Jersey Council on Gender Parity in Labor and Education and its partner agencies convened a conference entitled A Woman's Place: Her Role in the New Economy. The conference provided the opportunity to hear from women in science and technology jobs and educational programs. Eighteen workshops were presented on issues that affect women's progress in the new economy. Dianne Mills McKay, Chair, Council on Gender Parity in Labor and Education, and Connie O. Hughes, Governor's Office of Management and Policy, provided welcoming remarks. The featured speaker was Donald T. DiFrancesco, Acting Governor. Guest speakers included Diane Allen, New Jersey State Senator, Mark B. Boyd, Commissioner, New Jersey Department of Labor, and Joseph J. Seneca, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. The keynote speaker was Barbara A. Shailor, Dean, Douglass College, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

·        Report - June 2002   The Council published a report entitled Women at Work: Achieving Parity on the Job.  The study, conducted in partnership with the Center for Women and Work (CWW) at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, examined issues surrounding the experiences of women in five growing occupational areas in New Jersey—building trades, financial services, healthcare, law, and technology.  These same issues were explored further in a one-day conference, The Trust Company: Parity, Profits, and Partnerships, sponsored by the Council.

The report found substantial labor shortages in each of these occupational areas, and perhaps more importantly, that these shortages, could be addressed through greater efforts to support gender parity.  So far, the Council has pursued assertive initiatives in three of these areas: building trades, engineering (technology) and healthcare.

·        Research and Conference Workshop – June 2002 – Present  The Council sponsored research on women currently in the building trades to determine (1) why they choose a career in this nontraditional arena, (2) what their experiences were as women in the trades, and (3) what best practices and recommendations they could offer to enhance the work environment in the building trades, particularly for women.  This information was gathered primarily through interviews with women and in conference forums such as the SETC’s 5^th annual conference that was held in December 2002: Building Bridges Breaking Barriers.  The Council sponsored a workshop—Working Women:  Building for the Trades—in which women who had achieved journeyman status discussed the benefits to working in the construction trades, the barriers they overcame, and the opportunities for women to gain valuable skills that would lead to rewarding careers.  In recent months, this research has been extended to explore the perspective and experiences of men working side-by-side with women in the building trades.

·        Report – May 2003  The Council published a report on women in engineering called Engineering Their Futures: The Educational and Workplace Experiences of Female Engineers.  This report conveyed that only 19% of science, engineering, and technology careers are held by women and that they leave these careers twice as frequently as men. The report concluded that gender harassment, pay inequities, and feelings of isolation steer women away from choosing these career fields and hinder their retention if they do enter the fields.  The long hours required to advance in science, engineering and technology occupations serve as an additional barrier, interfering with women’s abilities to both work and care for their families.

Also highlighted in the study were a number of strategies to address these challenges for women.

·        Panel Discussion – June 2003  The Council hosted a panel discussion on women in the field of engineering.  The Council, in partnership with CWW, presented the findings reported in Engineering Their Futures: The Educational and Workplace Experiences of Female Engineers.  In addition, featured guests from Rowan University’s School of Engineering and the Society for Women Engineers of New Jersey shared strategies and accomplishments of women in the engineering fields. 

·        Report – December 2003  The Council convened an Advisory Committee and engaged the Center for Women and Work to research, in the healthcare field, the growing nursing shortage both nationally and in New Jersey.  Nursing is a heavily female-dominated field.  Consequently, the shortage has implications for women’s experiences in the healthcare labor force and for exploring the feasibility of attracting more men to this field.   In December 2003, the Council issued a report of its findings and recommendations in Healthcare Workforce Outlook:  The Nursing Shortage in New Jersey and the United States:  Suggestions for Future Research and Policy.  The report offered policy recommendations and proposed a broad research agenda.

·        Research – December 2003 – Present  The Council, in partnership with CWW, is conducting original research in the healthcare field to explore and document the experiences of male and female nurses in the climate of the labor shortage.  This research is one of the first studies to investigate the experience of being a male nurse, highlight stereotypes and obstacles that men face in the nursing profession, and suggest best practices and recommendations to improve the recruitment and retention of nurses, particularly male nurses, in the occupation.  A draft report of this research is presently undergoing final review and is expected to be released in August 2004.

·        Research (2002 - Present) and Initial Report (December 2003) The United States Department of Labor (USDOL) awarded a competitive grant to the New Jersey Department of Labor (NJDOL) for the Women in the 21st Century Distance Learning Pilot Project.  The unique presence in New Jersey of the Council on Gender Parity in Labor and Education was instrumental in the State’s winning this grant.  The objective of this project is to examine whether online learning, which has proved effective in increasing the skills and education of college educated individuals, could also be an effective skills delivery mechanism for single working mothers.  The workforce goal was to use online learning to raise women’s skills sufficiently so that they can be placed in higher-level occupations and command higher wages.  The pilot was implemented in 2002 through NJDOL One-Stop Career Centers and was evaluated by CWW.  The Council assumed the oversight role for the evaluation process.   An evaluation report entitled:  Findings from the Field: Early Findings of the New Jersey On-line Learning Project for Single Working-Poor Mothers was prepared by CWW.  The report provides a guide of effective strategies for designing distance learning projects.

Presently the Council continues in its oversight role, as the New Jersey distance learning model is being expanded not only throughout the State, but also throughout the nation.